Counterattack (10)

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The basic treatment for pneumothorax is to insert a chest tube and let it heal naturally.

If a hole opens in the lung, air leaks out.

So, to keep air from pressing on the heart and lungs and killing the patient, a tube is inserted into the chest and the air is drawn out through it.

However, the chest tube here does not directly treat the lung.

It only buys time until the lung heals naturally.

That is why there is a next step if the hole still won't close even with a chest tube.

Pleurodesis.

Because air keeps leaking from the lung, a drug is introduced into the pleural cavity to make the lung surface and the inside of the chest wall stick together.

And that drug was none other than the patient's own blood...